"We are all one." You hear this a lot in the yoga world. While it's a nice idea, are we really one? Or are we just tolerating? Peeling away all the layers of the material body, you get the same exact thing in everyone, making us all one: soul. But does this understanding hold true when your sitting on the train with someone wearing the right clothing and the right skin that makes you clutch your bag? Tolerance is easy. Understanding is the work. While I've become much more open in the last 10 years, I still find myself tolerating instead of understanding at times. Maybe in those moments, admitting that that's what's really happening is the first step to understanding.... Maybe? Understanding someone is knowing and having a history of experiences with this kind of person. Like how a yogi gets another yogi and can feel comfortable and vulnerable in front of one another. But then when you around some kind of someone that is a little less familiar or maybe even some kind of someone you've heard many negative things about, it becomes tolerance. Is it possible to remind yourself that this human being's soul is exactly like my soul? Maybe then, we can begin to understand 'one'?